• Wall Street Journal, Thursday, November 4, 2010 10:44 AM

Ah, to be an Anheuser-Busch executive in those halcyon days when the boys in St. Looie owned the hops and vats: $1,000 dinners, hunting lodges, sky suites at Busch Stadium, a fleet of corporate jets and kitchenettes bulging with brewski.

Patrick Cooke reviews Dethroning the King: The Hostile Takeover of Anheuser-Busch, an American Icon, a new book by Financial Times journalist Julie MacIntosh about a brand that has better recognition worldwide than McDonald's, Disney and Apple. "Few companies on earth were more evocative of America, with all of its history and iconography, than Anheuser-Busch," MacIntosh writes in her "strenuously reported" effort.

But the imperial and conniving August Busch III, a/k/a The Third, is not only the smartest guy in the room, he also rules the roost under the influence of one of two moods: pissed off or suspicious. Inevitably, he passes control on to The Fourth, a reformed bon vivant he trusts no more than he trusts anybody. (The duo was know in the A-B halls as "Crazy" and "Lazy.")

When the worldly, tight-fisted Belgians, In-Bev, came a-calling, the in-bred corporate culture at A-B proved to be no match and The Third cut The Fourth off at the knees one last time. The book sounds like it makes for some great post-Halloween reading.

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